Oberlin 2020 Teams Hold Town Meetings

The College's long-range planning process, begun last fall, is identifying
the basic principles and priorities that will guide Oberlin's decision-making
over the next quarter century.

The most recent phase of the process was a series of town meetings held by
14 planning teams in early March. The teams (which in-clude faculty, staff,
students, trustees, and alumni) had been organized around topics that emerged
from last fall's focus groups as the most important for consideration by members
of the College community.

Students, staff, faculty, as well as trustees and alumni on campus for the
day moved freely among the meeting rooms in Peters Hall, contributing wide-ranging
perspectives on the issues earlier identified as most critical to examine
for preparation for the year 2020. Those topics are:

Educational Priorities and theCurriculum

Building the Artistic Community for the Future

Building the Science Community of the Future

The Community Beyond the Campus

Building the Faculty of the Future

Oberlin and the International Community

Sports and Oberlin's Future

Supporting Student Initiative and Associational Activities

Oberlin and Educational Access

Oberlin and New Educational and Informational Technologies

Learning and Living in a Diverse Community

The Residential College Experience

Exploring Possibilities for Interdisciplinary Education

Campus Space and the Oberlin Community

Attendance at each session ranged from a few to more than 50 participants,
and President Nancy S. Dye said, "I think they went very well. The ones I
went to were very substantive."

The planning teams will continue their work in March and April, and capture
their thinking in brief summaries. Their reports will be reviewed by the Advisory
Committee and used to create the set of long-range priorities for Oberlin.
To develop further campus-wide understanding of and commitment to the broad,
recommended directions, the long-range priorities will be discussed on campus
this spring and reviewed with the trustees in June.

"This has been an open, interesting, and exciting process, involving all members
of the College community in critical discussions about Oberlin's future,"
comments Danette DiBiasio Wineberg '68, president of the Alumni Association
and member of the Advisory Committee.